Men’s Premier Division

Rugby Utah announced the formation of the country’s first state-based men’s rugby competition purposefully built to simultaneously support local club and elite level pathways.

This new competition called the Rugby Utah Men’s Premier Division (MPD) will unite new and existing men’s clubs along the Wasatch Front to compete for the new Iosepa Shield, the country’s only provincial-model state championship.

The Rugby Utah MPD begins play August 27th and runs until the end of October with the top players from within the competition being selected for the Rugby Utah Elite Provincial Team (EPT) that will compete in one of the top domestic rugby competitions in the Spring of 2017.

Standings

2016 Men’s Premier Division

Pos

Team

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP

Pts

1

BROS

6

6

0

0

234

107

127

2

26

2

SPAR

6

5

1

0

201

44

157

4

24

3

GLAD

6

4

2

0

172

159

13

1

17

4

WVL

6

3

3

0

194

198

-4

3

15

5

PCH

6

2

4

0

105

168

-63

1

9

6

UNIT

6

1

5

0

85

211

-126

0

4

7

LIB

6

0

6

0

0

30

-30

0

0

Points are awarded as follows.

Win = 4 pointsDraw = 2 PointsLoss = 1 point for loss within 7 points or less of the winning teamLoss = 0 points for loss of more than 7 pointsBonus Point = 1 point for scoring three more tries than the opponent.

Iosepa Shield

The Rugby Utah MPD will compete for the Iosepa Shield, a new traveling trophy named in honor of the Utah’s Polynesian Pioneers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that laid the foundation for one of the world’s largest Polynesian communities in Utah.

The city of Iosepa (which is Hawaiian for “Joseph”) was named after LDS Church President Joseph F. Smith, who was one of the first LDS Missionaries to serve the people of the Hawaiian Islands in the late 19th century.

Iosepa was founded as a “gathering place” for people from the Hawaiian Islands in Utah who had converted to the LDS Church and soon became a home for similarly-converted people of faith from other Polynesian countries.

Despite the inhospitable desert conditions that Iosepa offered the people laid the foundation in Utah for what is now one of the largest Polynesian communities that resides outside of Polynesia.

Venues

All Rugby Utah MPD games will be played at Olympus High School football stadium in Holladay, UT with the Iosepa Shield finals being played at the Regional Athletic Complex on October 29th. Admission is $5 for all spectators 12 and older with everyone under the age of 12 admitted for free.

Elite Provincial Team

Following the conclusion of the MPD season the competition players will be selected and invited to play with the Rugby Utah EPT program and compete in one of the top domestic competitions in America during the Spring of 2017.

The specific competition for the Rugby Utah EPT team will be announced soon.